Eastern Kentucky

Despite over 200 firefighters battling wildland fires in some eight Kentucky counties, the effort is expected to continue into next week.

State Division of Forestry Spokesman Mark Wiedewitsch says large fires in Pike County and the Pine Mountain area are contained. But, he worries sun and wind could result in more new fires today. Wiedewitsch says overnight rains helped only so much, “It really wasn’t enough. To really make a dent in it, we really need a good inch or more.”

The leader of a non-profit economic development agency in Eastern Kentucky sees promise in the results of a just-released workforce survey. It’s partly focused on efforts to lure new firms to the region that could offer employment to out-of-work coal miners.

Joel Bowen slips slowly down a telephone pole, his boots fixed with little metal spears to grip the wood.

"It's just like starting all over again, but I figure a couple of years the money will start rolling in better," he says, his face dripping with sweat from the Kentucky humidity. "It has to be better on my health. I won't be breathing in the coal dust and the rock dust no more."

Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet secretary is not expecting any short term rebound in the eastern Kentucky coalfields. Charles Snavely appeared before the senate’s natural resources committee this week.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer is challenging leaders in eastern Kentucky to accept the decline of coal production and invest in a new economy to help pull the region out of poverty.

"A lot of leaders in Eastern Kentucky keep talking about ‘coal is the answer and there is a war on coal.’ I’m a friend of coal. I support the coal industry. But the coal industry’s future doesn't look bright and we have to look beyond that and learn to develop a new economy in Eastern Kentucky," he says.